


The Sword of Damocles

by Meatball42



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Rocky Horror Picture Show, Torchwood
Genre: Alien Planet, Alternate Universe, Cannibalism, Clone Sex, Clones, Clothing Kink, Crossover, Dubious Consent, F/M, Freeze Ray, M/M, Other, Sexual Slavery, Sonic Screwdriver, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-27
Updated: 2013-12-27
Packaged: 2018-01-06 09:03:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1104971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatball42/pseuds/Meatball42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s Jack’s turn to choose the Tardis’s destination, so of course he wants to go to the planet of Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania. However, instead of a 24/7 hedonist’s paradise, the Tardis crew stumbles upon something terrible. Will Rose, the Doctor and Jack escape Transsexual alive, or will Jack’s attachment to an attractive stranger doom them all?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sword of Damocles

**Author's Note:**

> I didn’t actually like The Rocky Horror Picture Show when I first watched it, and a big part of that was the extreme dubcon issues that no one else I know who’s seen it seem to notice at all. So I decided to write a fanfic exploring it, because IMO, Torchwood makes most everything better. And the Doctor, of course.

He woke to the sound of cackling.

In the years to come he would come to recognize it as a sign of his Mistress’s exhilaration at her success, but at the time he did not know what to make of it. He had been programmed to react positively to his Mistress’s happiness, so his first moments in the world were accompanied by a flood of hormones and endorphins. Not a bad way to start a life.

The rest of it could have gone better.

“Oh, you are precious, aren’t you?” she moaned. “So big and strong… so… pale!” she gasped. “You’re going to look so beautiful with me wrapped around you, won’t you Ianto?”

He sat up. He looked around.

He was indeed pale. His Mistress’s skin was a deep brown, glowing, the skin trussed up in a highly sexual contraption that hugged her body with menacing decorative twists of shining silver. It appeared to be made entirely of metal, as were her boots, headgear and gloves.

The room was an odd shade of pink, with a high balcony. There were many other beings in the large room, watching his Mistress towering over him on his slab. They did not all appear humanoid, and those that were wore clothes similar to his Mistress.

“Don’t look at others when I’m talking to you!” she hissed, grabbing his chin and forcing him to stare into her eyes. Her nails dug into his flesh.

He looked down demurely.

“Yes, Mistress.”

“Oh, you are a treat,” she gushed, a manic grin splitting her face again. Her fingers caressed his skin now, starting with his face and trailing downwards over his subtle but strong pectorals and his abdomen, muscles again solid but nearly hidden. “I’ve made you perfect!” she shrieked suddenly.

The crowd began to cheer wildly. His Mistress spun, throwing her hands into the air to receive the praise and honor. After a few moments, she waved them off. “Enough!”

The crowd instantly fell silent.

“I have to give my creation a proper happy birthday, don’t I?” she asked. The assembled beings laughed, staring at him with hungry eyes.

He felt their gazes on his skin like lasers. He sat very still.

“Come, Ianto. I’m going to teach you to be a man!”

[*]

“I’m sick and tired of this!”

Jack tore off his leather jacket and threw it to the floor of the Tardis before throwing himself into a chair dramatically.

Rose and the Doctor shared a secret grin, which disappeared when their companion looked up.

“What’s the matter Jack?” Rose asked.

“I’m bored! We keep going to these ‘commitment’ planets, which is all well and good for you two, on your honeymoon and all, but what about me?” Jack gestured to the pair, whose hands were clasped, then himself. “When was the last time I could find a decent shag on one of these planets, they’re all ‘ohh, no sex ‘til marriage,’” he imitated an alien he’d spoken to on the most recent planet. “Whose stupid idea was that, anyway?” Jack asked, rolling his eyes in disgust.

The couple shared another smile.

“All right Jack, why don’t you choose the next planet,” the Doctor offered, heading over to the console.

Jack perked up. “Seriously?”

“Sure,” the Doctor grinned, big ears accentuating the girth of the smile. “Anywhere you want to go. What are you in the mood for?”

Jack pondered. “Well, after how uptight all these places have been, what about Transsexual in the Transylvania galaxy, say, the twenty-eighth century?” He grinned at Rose. “It’s a wild good time,” he winked, and Rose giggled.

“Watch it Captain, that’s my wife you’re oglin’,” the Doctor warned, but it had no heat. Thankfully for flirtatious Jack, the Doctor’s jealous paranoia had died down since he and Rose had tied the knot.

The Tardis shuddered, and there was the usual pitching to the side. The three passengers grabbed hold of the nearest anchored object, barely noticing the interruption anymore.

“So what’s the deal with this planet?” Rose shouted over the sounds of the ship’s movement.

“Well, the Transsexuals- that’s the natives, not the technical term- used to have a very uptight society, but there was a sexual revolution. After that, they became very free-love, with almost an overindulgance of kinks. Of course,” he continued in honeyed tones, “there’s no such thing as too much kink, in my book.”

“And we’re here!” The Doctor announced, pointedly interrupting the playfully flirtatious look being shared by his wife and friend. He led the way to the door, allowing Jack the honor of opening it.

“We should be right in the capital city, home of some of the most famous strip clubs, sex clubs, gambling houses and purveyors of the most intense pleasure drugs in the galaxy,” the Doctor explained to Rose. He smiled at Jack. “You ought to feel right at home, Captain.”

Jack’s grin could’ve lit up the city.

“Now, I don’t want you to get too corrupted, so we’ll be leaving in forty-eight hours, understand?”

Jack laughed. “Oh, Doctor. I’m going to be the one corrupting them!”

With that, he threw open the doors and stepped out-

-into the serene courtyard of a castle, gently lit by an orange, late afternoon sun.

“Not exactly the flashing lights and perfumes of the capital city Doc,” Jack said wryly.

The Doctor headed back to the console, Jack following, while Rose stayed outside to admire the green sky and blue grass.

“We’re not that far from the capital,” the Doctor muttered defensively while inspecting the screens of his ship. “Too far to walk, though. We can go the rest of the way in the Tardis.” He began to fiddle with the various knobs and levers, only to discover that none of them reacted. “What’s this?” he asked indignantly.

After a few moments of staring into space, which made Jack raise his eyebrows, the Doctor practically squawked. “What?!”

“What’s up, Doc?” Jack asked, secretly chuckling at his own wit.

The Time Lord didn’t appear to notice. “She’s… she’s napping! She says she wants the whole forty-eight hours I said we’d be gone for, and we can only wake her up if it’s an emergency!” He seemed totally flabbergasted.

Jack wasn’t impressed. “She’s a living thing, right?” he clarified. “She deserves a rest every once in a while.”

“I… I suppose so, just… she never has in the past!”

Jack shrugged. “Let’s go beg a ride,” he decided, and held out his arm for the Doctor, along with a winning smiled. The Doctor eyed the offered limb and snorted, then walked out by himself. Jack pouted for an instant, but quickly followed.

“Come on, Rose, we’re going inside!” The Doctor announced, striding toward the ornate doors of the huge gray castle. She and Jack followed, giggling good-naturedly behind the Time Lord’s back at the imperious manner he sometimes acquired.

The Doctor banged on the door knocked, and in a few minutes, it was opened to show a humanoid with graying orange hair and large eyes. “Yes?” he asked, breath rasping.

“Hello, I’m the Doctor, and this is my wife Rose and our friend Captain Jack.” He took a moment to glare a ‘no-flirt’ warning at the captain, but Jack’s brow had furrowed as he looked down at the servant’s flowing black robe and the expression he shot back clearly said ‘don’t worry!’ The Doctor continued.

“Our ship is being a little moody, and we were hoping to borrow a communication device to call for transport.”

The man nodded slowly. “I think it would be best if you came inside.” He moved back to allow them room to enter.

Rose looked at the Doctor nervously, but he gave her an encouraging nod and she walked in first, followed by the men.

They were led through a dusty and filthy hallway. The servant opened a set of doors opposite the main entrance and they were immediately swamped by bright, cheery music and slightly out-of-place crown molding. To Rose’s confused eye, it looked like an old Earth house from her own time. A flashy blinking light system showed off the wide ballroom full of aliens and humanoids, all decked in strange garments and performing an odd pattern dance. Jack immediately grinned and ran to join in, tossing his jacket into a corner. He was quickly accepted into the jumping, hip-thrusting mass of people.

“So, what exactly is this?” Rose shouted into the Doctor’s ear as they stuck to the wall of what seemed like the weirdest club Rose had seen in her life.

“A private party, I’d guess,” he shouted back. “It’s actually rather tame for this planet!”

The music came to a crescendo with all the various aliens joining in. Jack’s voice was audible at the loudly sung chorus. As it ended, all the dancers, including Jack, fell to the floor to great applause from the audience and the melee settled enough that Rose and the Doctor could see a band of spider-like beings at the end of the ballroom, on a stage that was spinning around to be hidden by the wall. In its place was a large throne, made of shining metal bars. The music faded out as it appeared, and the party-goers parted to clear a space from the doors to the throne.

To more applause, a female-looking figure entered the room. Rose gasped in horror upon taking it the woman’s metal bikini-like outfit, which looked like the basic structure of a Cyberman. “Doctor,” she whimpered.

The Doctor pulled his wife close. “Don’t worry, she’s not one of them, she just wants to look like them. It’s one of the more taboo kinks in the universe,” he said disgustedly. “I’m not surprised to find it here.”

As the woman crossed the room and sat down on the throne, the applause died away and the music resumed, with more of a beat this time. Some of the dancers left the room, but many began dancing that was more familiar to Rose from clubs in her time.

Jack bounded over to them. At some point during the dancing, he’d lost his shirt and his body and hair were dripping with sweat and something that might have been slime. “I’m starting to feel better already!” he told them.

“We have guests?” The three spun around and discovered that the cyber-woman had managed to cross the dance floor without them noticing.

Rose stopped herself from flinching as she stared at the gleaming strips of metal that clung tightly around the woman’s dark brown body.

“You admire my design, I see,” the woman said to Rose. She smiled arrogantly and spun slowly, allowing them to see the whole apparatus.

Rose tried to smile. “It’s very… edgy.”

“Cutting edge, wouldn’t you say?” she said slyly. “I do like to be ahead of the crowd. I am Lisa, Controller of this region. You are in my home. What is your business here?”

“Sight-seein’,” the Doctor answered with his usual giant grin.

Lisa looked at him more closely. “You seem… familiar. Have we met in the past?”

The Doctor pulled his psychic paper from his jacket and held it up to the Controller. “You tell me.”

Lisa’s expression was delighted. “Chancellor! What an honor to have you grace our region. You’re so far from home.”

“Like I said, sight-seeing. Jack, Rose an’ I are on our way to the capital. I don’t suppose you could give a friendly Chancellor a lift?”

“You’re not leaving so soon,” Lisa retorted. Rose shivered at the way her words sounded like a decree. “What would be said of my hospitality if a Chancellor refused to even stay the night?” She watched the Doctor expectantly with a sly smile, but before he could answer another being appeared at Lisa’s elbow.

Rose could practically hear the ‘thunk’ as Jack’s jaw hit the floor. She could barely take her eyes off the man herself! He was nearly six feet tall, dark-haired, and wore only a tight gold pair of shorts that clung to his hips like a speedo and stretched indecently around his groin. The parts of his body that were uncovered- nearly all of him- had delicious-looking muscles, but he wasn’t bulgy like some of the gym-bound blokes Rose had seen. And he had such a cute face, with slightly plump cheeks and an up-turned nose, that Rose only looked away when her husband put his arm around her shoulder possessively.

“We have several guest suites available, Mistress,” the man said subserviently to Lisa. He didn’t seem to notice Rose and Jack’s staring, or the attention from most of the colorful aliens in the vicinity.

“You see?” Lisa said to the Doctor. “Your accommodations already await you.”

“Hello,” Jack said to the mysterious man, clearly taking all of him in.

Lisa smiled. “I see you have very good taste. This is my personal servant, Ianto. Say hello to the Chancellor and his friends, Ianto.”

“It’s an honor sirs, miss,” the pale man bowed his head to the three of them. Jack licked his lips.

Lisa stroked her fingernails down Ianto’s bicep, staring at Jack. “If you and your friends choose to stay the night, you’d have time to get to know Ianto. I think he’d like that, wouldn’t you Ianto,” she asked.

Ianto answered while looking into Jack’s eyes. “Yes, Mistress.”

Jack stepped forward. “You want to dance?” His voice was suggestive enough to make Rose blush even though it wasn’t directed at her.

“Yes sir,” Ianto answered, and if Rose wasn’t mistaken, he actually batted his long, dark eyelashes. Jack grabbed him by the elbow and spun him away to the dance floor.

“I’ll tell my servants to reserve your rooms,” the Controller said with a triumphant smile. “I hope you enjoy your stay, Chancellor.” She swept away.

It looked like the Doctor was going to follow her, so Rose grabbed his arm. “This is Jack’s trip, remember? We promised, ‘cause he’s been so patient lately.”

The Doctor grumbled and glared at the multitudinous swirls of people around them, accidentally creating a few feet of empty space before them. Then he switched gears and grinned at Rose. “I guess we’ll have to explore then, won’t we!”

Rose jumped and squealed and took his elbow as they started off.

[*]

Once they started dancing, the room began to darken, with deep pulsating dance music and neon lights that flowed wildly around the room. Most club worlds knew what their visitors were looking for, and the heavy beats gave Jack a perfect excuse to dance up close and personal with the tempting hunk he’d met. Ianto responded to every silent cue, and it wasn’t until Jack was grinding against him, their sweaty torsos sliding together, that he moved back an inch.

“Would you like to retire, sir?”

“We can take this somewhere else, but there won’t be any sleeping going on,” Jack growled.

Ianto’s blue-gray eyes twinkled at Jack and he offered his hand, leading Jack to the edge of the dance floor and out a side door.

Ianto brought them deep into the castle. Jack was a bit put out by the gorgeous humanoid’s silence on the way, but it gave him more time to admire Ianto’s tight gold garment.

He frowned. Someone with Ianto’s skin tone should really be wearing red…

“Here we are, sir,” Ianto announced, opening a door in the cold stone wall of the castle.

Jack entered, and grinned. The bedroom was sumptuous, clearly designed by a hedonist for the purpose of celebrating pleasure. Shelves and hooks lined the walls with all sorts of delightfully kinky things, and the bed was huge and deep, surrounded by hanging veils.

He looked at Ianto, once again taking in the younger man’s fine physique. “You’ve got all these toys laid out,” he said sultrily, “where do you want to start?”

“Whatever you’d like, sir.”

Jack murmured his appreciation as he took the beautiful man into his arms, deciding he was going to take his time with this one. “I think I’d like to explore you,” he drawled into Ianto’s ear.

Ianto turned his head and caught Jack’s lips. Jack kept the kiss light, enjoying the simple pleasure at the beginning of what was shaping up to be one of the best nights he’d had in weeks. His hands traversed Ianto’s torso, brushing over his smooth skin and pressing his fingertips into the hard muscles beneath. He moaned when he reached the silky material of Ianto’s pants.

“I’d really like to see you naked, on the bed,” he said huskily, feeling a throb of lust go through him as Ianto obeyed wordlessly.

Jack removed his own trousers while Ianto got on the bed, and was glad he had- his cock swelled up so suddenly at the sight of Ianto’s bare body waiting for him that his tight trousers would have been pretty uncomfortable.

“Time and space, Ianto, you’re gorgeous,” he breathed, crawling onto the bed to hover above the other man on all fours.

“Thank you sir,” Ianto said demurely, eyes gleaming as he looked at Jack through long lashes.

Jack chuckled as he leaned closer. “Call me Jack.” He kissed Ianto’s perfect lips gently, enjoying the way they molded easily to the pressure. When he began to nuzzle Ianto’s neck, the other man spoke, his voice as polite and unruffled as he had been in the dance hall.

“I’m not to refer to guests so familiarly.”

“Why not?” Jack lifted his head, slightly annoyed. He really enjoyed making his partners cry out his name in ecstasy, but somehow he didn’t imagine ‘sir’ being shouted to the rafters would have quite the same appeal.

“My Mistress has forbidden it.”

Jack shifted his weight and sat on Ianto’s thighs and leaned toward the younger man, already smiling again. Now this was a good development! “Oh yeah?” he said lustfully. “And how’ll she punish you if you break her rule?” He rubbed a finger along Ianto’s jaw line, feeling his spine tingle as he remembered a golden paddle on one of the room’s tables.

“She’ll lock me in the freezer,” Ianto answered, face blank. “Or she’ll take away my sight and have me escort her around the mansion.”

Jack’s finger froze on Ianto’s face. “You mean… she’d blindfold you?”

“No, she’ll deactivate the visual center in my brain until she feels I’ve learned my lesson.”

Jack could only stare in shock at Ianto, who looked back at him with utter calm. “And she does this if you…”

“Refer to a guest in an overly familiar manner.”

Jack slumped down onto the bed to Ianto’s side. “How many guests do you see?” he asked, feeling a tightness at the back of his throat.

“Not many,” Ianto said casually. “She prefers to keep me to herself.”

Jack began to feel slightly better.

“Only one or two a week.”

Ianto watched him try to burn through the ceiling- or more specifically, the ornate zenith of the veils- with only his glare. “Have I displeased you, sir?”

Jack looked at him in surprise. “Would you get in trouble for displeasing me?” he asked ironically.

“Yes.”

Jack blinked. “I’m not displeased, Ianto.”

Ianto didn’t seem convinced. He sat up and brushed the backs of his fingers down Jack’s cheek. “I want for you to be pleased,” he said quietly, the intensity of his gaze sending shivers through Jack. He began to nuzzle Jack’s neck the same was Jack had done to him earlier, laying soft kisses up the sensitive column until Jack’s eyes slid closed in pleasure.

Jack wrenched himself out of the soft clouds that had enveloped him and landed jarringly back on the ground. He caught Ianto’s- soft, wide, oh so strong- shoulders tightly. “I’m not going to do this to you, Ianto.”

Ianto frowned slightly. “Why not?”

“Because it’s not fair. You didn’t chose to sleep with me, did you? The Controller told you to.” Jack wondered if ‘Controller’ was really her title, or if she’d picked it herself.

“She’s my Mistress,” Ianto said simply.

“That doesn’t mean she owns you,” Jack snapped.

Ianto stayed silent, only stroking the same part of Jack’s chest over and over. Jack shivered. “I’m sorry. Please keep talking to me.”

“She created me,” Ianto murmured after a minute.

“Are you a cyborg?”

“No, I am genetically engineered,” Ianto explained. “My Mistress’s design. She is very proud of me and likes to show me off.”

Jack sat up and encouraged Ianto to look him in the eye. “My parents told me the stores of the Great Ones who created the universe. When they bore the first animals, they were cattle, urks, creatures like that. And they were given to the sentient creatures for food and resources. But the Great Ones decreed that all sentient creatures would have free will, and that all who had free will had the right to wield it in their own interests. What this means, Ianto,” Jack took Ianto’s hand and squeezed it, “is that, just because she created you, that doesn’t give her the right to make you a slave.”

“I’m not a slave,” Ianto protested. “She loves me. She’s my Mistress.”

“Mistress is a title that has to be earned,” Jack argued. “If she loved you, she wouldn’t take away your sight. That’s not a safe or a fair punishment. Those aren’t things a loving domme does. Those are the actions of a cruel Mistress.”

Ianto looked afraid. He shook his head and pulled away from Jack to sit on the side of the bed.

Jack gave him a few moments in silence, then moved to sit next to him. He looked at Ianto’s face, and was both saddened and hopeful to see that the humanoid was thinking deeply. “Has she ever made you do anything you didn’t want to do?” Jack asked gently.

Ianto thought for a while. Jack could see when he had an answer, but he still hesitated. “Sometimes, I… don’t want to touch her. Or… she tells me to go with guests, and I know… I know they will hurt me.”

Jack moved closer and put an arm around Ianto. “My friends and I, we’ll take you away from here. Somewhere you can be free. Where you can choose what you do and whether you sleep with anyone.”

Ianto looked at him, and Jack had to stop himself from responding to that lovely face inches away from his own. “Why would you do that?” the younger man asked.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

They sat there for a while in silence, until Jack glanced at the door. “How long are you usually in here with… guests?” He managed to keep disgust from creeping into his voice, not wanting to hurt Ianto.

“An hour or two.”

“Then I guess we’ve got some time to kill.” Jack looked around and immediately saw the wide range of sex toys and other implements that were laid out around the room. “Uh… how about we put on our pants?”

Ianto gave him a confused look, but did so, and Jack sighed quietly in relief as at least some of Ianto’s oh-so-tempting and yet off-limits body was covered up.

“There’s not much to do in here,” Jack said, trying to ignore all the wonderful uses of the things outside the veils. “How about we just cuddle and talk?”

“What’s cuddle?”

Jack swallowed down a sudden jolt of pity. “I’ll show you. Come here.” He moved to the other side of the bed, where a giant mound of pillows was stacked, and reclined on them, patting the spot beside him for Ianto. Curious, Ianto lay down where he’d indicated. Jack wrapped his arms around Ianto and pulled him closer, trying to project safety and reassurance with his touch.

“What now?” Ianto asked when Jack had settled their limbs.

“This is it.”

Ianto blinked down at their bodies, pressed together among the luxurious pillows. “I don’t understand. What it this for?”

Jack swallowed again and held Ianto closer. “It’s for comfort. It’s for… connection.”

“Is this foreplay?” Ianto frowned. Jack couldn’t resist a laugh at the cute expression.

“It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. Any people who care about each other can cuddle, friends, family, lovers, even pets.”

Ianto looked at Jack’s face in surprise. “Do you care about me?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Why?”

Jack realized he hadn’t thought about it. Maybe it was Ianto’s innocence, his gentleness despite what he’d been subjected to at the hands of the Controller. Maybe it was instinct after traveling with the Doctor and Rose. Or maybe… “My brother was taken by slavers,” Jack said quietly. “They were evil creatures. They’re horrible to their slaves and they sell them to people who are even worse. I searched for him for years, but I never found him.” He finished in a whisper.

Ianto listened attentively, and then hesitantly hugged him. “I’m sorry, sir.”

“Jack,” Jack said, suddenly not wanting to hear the word ‘sir’ ever again.

“…I’m sorry, Jack.”

“Don’t be.” Jack pasted on a smile, not wanting to think about his brother any more. “Why don’t you tell me about yourself?”

Ianto nodded and answered dutifully. “My Mistress created me nearly three years ago and I have served her ever since.”

Jack berated himself silently for the mistake. “I mean, tell me about you. What do you like?”

Ianto pointed outside the veils. “My favorite implements are set aside. I could show you.”

Jack was startled by the sudden reappearance of the bedroom eyes he’d seen earlier, and shivered at the reminder of Ianto’s training.

“No!” he said loudly, and tightened his arms to keep Ianto from getting up. “I meant… what’s your favorite food?” he asked randomly.

Ianto considered. “I like coffee.”

“Yeah?” said Jack, relieved.

“Yeah.” The younger man smiled shyly. “I really like it.”

“What else?”

Ianto’s smile grew. “Movies. Black and white movies. And three-piece suits! Except…Lisa says they’re very last century.” His enthusiasm melted into an expression of shame.

“Ianto.” Jack stared straight into the other man’s eyes. “I’ll get you a three-piece suit, and you’ll look devastating, I’m sure. And all the coffee you can drink,” he swore.

Ianto’s soft gray-blue eyes looked up at him in wonder. “I like you, Jack.”

Ignoring the warmth that spread through him, Jack shook his head. “You’ve only known me for an hour.”

Ianto smiled. “You remind me of Annie. She was Lisa’s assistant before me, so she left a week after I was born, but she was the only friend I’ve ever had. You and Annie, you’re the only truly kind people I’ve ever met.”

Jack looked at Ianto’s open, honest expression and sighed. He kissed the young man’s forehead. “Ianto, you’ve got a lot to learn.”

[*]

Rose was starting to get annoyed. Usually when she and the Doctor went to explore a mansion, they’d find some sort of adventure, or at least meet someone interesting. All they’d come across on this trip was various types of beings having sex. While the Doctor seemed almost amused- she could practically hear the ‘lower life forms’ lecture gearing up in his head- Rose was both bored and mildly disgusted.

“I can’t believe this place,” she muttered to the Doctor as they passed some barely-clothed fuchsia aliens in the hallway. “Doesn’t anyone have anything better to do?”

“It’s their vacation, Rose,” the Doctor chided. “Some races would think lyin’ on the beach in a swimsuit would be inappropriate- even people on your own planet.”

Rose scowled. She was in the mood for an adventure, not an anthropology lesson. Suddenly she caught sight of an ornate door at the end of a shadowy hallway. “What’s that?” she asked, feeling excitement begin to burn through her limbs.

The Doctor grinned. “Let’s find out.”

The door was locked, but it was no trouble for the Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver. Inside was a wide, pink room with a round glass ceiling that let in purple light from outside, illuminating a rectangular shape covered up in the center of the room.

Rose scowled at the nude statutes scattered around. “Seriously…”

“Rose.”

She hurried over to the Doctor, who had removed the dusty red sheet from the shape in the middle of the room. “What is it?” she asked excitedly, examining what looked like an empty fish tank. “Is it, I don’t know, an alter for some strange religion? Or, oh! A psychic massage table! I could really do with a massage…”

“It’s a cloning machine,” the Doctor said tonelessly.

Rose finally looked at husband’s face and her enthusiasm drained away. “What’s the matter with that?” she asked. “They clone stuff on Earth. Only sheep, but that’s the future, isn’t it?”

“For medical purposes, sometimes. Not like this.” The Doctor darted to the wall, where a computer was neatly melded to the side of the wall. He aimed his Screwdriver at the screen and it turned on instantly, flashing through a succession of files until it showed a list of alien characters. Rose squinted, and they began to translate thanks to the Tardis, but the Doctor read faster than she could and switched to another screen. “Hey, lemme catch up!” she protested.

“This is bad, Rose,” the Doctor intoned. “They’re growing people here. Live people, not just organs.”

“Like, test-tube babies?”

“Like test-tube adults. You could make the perfect soldier like this,” he said ominously. “Or the perfect slave.”

A series of pictures flashed across the screen, mostly humanoid, but some that were multi-colored or intricately patterned. All were unusually beautiful. All had a large red X covering their pictures.

“Are they all…” Rose asked nervously.

“Dead. Decommissioned. Thrown away, like yesterday’s garbage.” The Doctor sounded disgusted, and Rose couldn’t blame him. Then she gasped. “Oh my God, Doctor, that’s-”

“Ianto,” he finished. They stared at the image on the screen of an innocent pale man, the same man they’d last seen dancing with-

“Jack!”

[*]

When Jack’s Vortex Manipulator told them two hours had passed, he gave Ianto a gentle kiss on the forehead and repeated his promise that he would take Ianto away from the planet. He opened the door to the room and was unsurprised to find two cyber-groupies guarding the door. He faked a satisfied smile and asked them where he could find the guest suites. As soon as he was out of view, the superior air disappeared and he strode authoritatively down the stone halls toward the Doctor and Rose’s rooms.

Jack tried to maintain calm, but his hands shook with anger at what had been done to Ianto. Jack had a lifelong hatred of slavery, as Boeshane was often preyed upon by pirates and slavers. It wasn’t until he was fourteen that his Peninsula had been hit, and his brother taken. Jack knew it was at least partially transference from Gray’s kidnappers that made him hate Lisa so much, but he couldn’t force himself to act rationally when Ianto’s voice, calmly explaining how he would be blinded, still echoed in his mind.

By the time he reached the guest suites he was enraged, and it was only the sight of the Doctor’s dangerously serious face that stopped him from starting something in the middle of the corridor. Jack nodded sharply to the door they were standing around and the three travelers entered, the Doctor closing the door firmly behind them.

“The Controller’s running a cloning-”

“That bitch has created her own-”

They froze, staring at each other, and despite the gravity of the situation. Rose snorted.

“You first,” Jack said, still smoldering.

“Lisa has her own personal cloning machine,” the Doctor explained. “She’s created dozens of life-forms, trying to create the perfect lover.”

“Ianto,” Jack growled.

“Exactly. Good thing is, it looks like hers is the only machine. It’s a mix of Earth technology from the nineteen-seventies and contemporaneous systems, nearly impossible to recreate.”

“Great. Now how are we going to take her down?”

“Who says we’re going to do anything?” the Doctor retorted, faux-mild. Rose narrowed her eyes, remembering his anger after they found the clone room, but he looked only at Jack, deceptively blank-faced.

“She grew Ianto like a plant!” the former con-man raged. “She rents him out for political influence. He’s her own personal sex slave, and the worst part is, he doesn’t know any better!”

“Seemed to work out fine for you,” the Doctor countered sarcastically. “Did you figure it out before the dancing or after?”

Jack looked ready to explode. Rose felt it was time to step in. “Doctor, stop that,” she ordered. “You know Jack wouldn’t take advantage of someone like that, not if he knew what was goin’ on.” The Doctor glared, but grumbled an apology. “So I’m assuming we’re not going to let this Controller go on killing people, which means we need a plan.”

“I promised Ianto we’d take him away,” Jack informed them.

The Doctor scowled. “My Tardis is not a taxi service, Captain.”

“I don’t want to drop him off somewhere, I want to take him with us. Or, whatever he wants,” he finished more quietly.

“You really like him?” Rose smiled.

Jack nodded. “He’s so innocent. He’s never been outside the grounds of the mansion, was never educated, but he taught himself how to read and speak the traders’ language for this quadrant.”

“Sounds like you’re smitten, Jack Harkness,” she teased. Her smile faded when he responded seriously.

“He’s so naïve in some ways, but he’s intuitive, and kind, and…” He swallowed, then noticed the Doctor and Rose watching him closely. “And smoking hot, of course.” As they continued to stare, “I’m not smitten!” Rose giggled. “I’m not!”

“Has he told you he wants to leave?” the Doctor asked.

“Not in so many words, but… this isn’t a good life for him, and he knows it. I think he’s just never considered leaving.”

“We can’t just whisk him off into the Tardis without his consent,” the Doctor said quietly. Rose took his hand in support. “We’ve been invited to breakfast tomorrow morning with Lisa. We’ll make a plan tonight and standby at breakfast.”

Jack’s eyes were dark. “I don’t want to leave him in this place even for one night that we could take him away.”

“That’s the plan, Captain,” the Doctor said firmly, gaze demanding compliance. “We’re going to give Lisa a chance to surrender.”

Seeing Jack was still tense, Rose smiled at him. “It’s only one night. He’s waited this long, he can wait just one more night, right?”

[*]

Once Ianto’s guest- no, his Mistress’s guest- no, Jack- had left, Ianto hesitated. He normally straightened up the visiting room, cleaned himself and the toys that had been used, but this time there was nothing to clean or straighten. Remembering that sir- Jack, wanted to keep up the charade that they’d had sex, Ianto took a shower and dallied for a few minutes before leaving for his Mistress’s room as usual.

Ianto felt very strange, like the whole world had moved around him and things weren’t where he had left them. This was a particularly strange feeling because the world never changed, not for him. Every day was another party, another important person to entertain, another chance to show his Mistress how much he loved her.

He did love her, didn’t he? She’d told him so. He was created to be the perfect lover, and lover meant love, didn’t it? She said she loved him. Well, usually she said she loved his arse or his clever hands or some other part of his body, but that’s what he was, right? A body?

Except Jack didn’t seem to think so. Jack wanted to know what he liked, not just what he was. Jack said he cared about him. Ianto was glad Jack hadn’t said he loved him, because then he wouldn’t know where they stood at all. Lisa said she was the only person who would ever love him, but she hurt him. If that was what love was… then was it a good thing, that no one else could ever love a creation?

Maybe love wasn’t what he needed. Maybe… this caring was what he needed.

When he arrived at his Mistress’s bedroom, she had already taken off most of her Cyberman design. “You’re done already?” she asked scandalously, as she often did. “How was it, Ianto?”

“He left very satisfied,” Ianto replied. He’d learned that was what his Mistress wanted to hear, and so that and a few other stock answers had become rote. Except this time, he found himself wondering if Jack had been satisfied. Should he have tried harder to convince Jack to use the toys? He’d seen how excited they made Jack when they first entered the room.

Ianto wondered why he found himself wishing that he’d been able to make Jack happy.

“Good,” his Mistress said firmly, removing the skin-cling metal she’d designed for the intimate areas of her body, leaving her completely naked. “If the Chancellor’s friends are happy, it’s more likely he’ll give a good report of our region to the House of Chancellors. And do you know what that means, Ianto?”

Ianto tried to remember the significance of the House of Chancellors. It was difficult. He’d never talked to any of these dignitaries, only slept with them. “Money?”

“Exactly, my dear,” his Mistress purred, brushing one hand through his hair and cupping his cock through his pants with the other. “We’ll get lots and lots of money.”

“Mistress?” he asked quietly.

She scowled at being interrupted. “What?”

“You do… love me, don’t you?” he said tentatively.

“Of course I do,” she snapped. “I created you, didn’t I?”

“Do you think we could… tonight, we could…”

“What are you in the mood for?” His Mistress was smiling at him again, and that should have made him feel good, but he didn’t want her to look at his body the way she was then.

“Could we… cuddle?”

She turned her head like she misheard him. “Could we what?!”

Ianto gulped. “Cuddle,” he repeated in a very small voice.

He was looking at the ground submissively, so he didn’t see her face as she grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him bodily onto the bed. His Mistress’s muscles had been reinforced by her designs, and when he hit the headboard he knew that he was going to have a heavy bruise on the side of his face the next morning.

“Who is in charge here, Ianto?” she said imperiously.

He shuffled to kneel in the center of the bed, head down. “You are, Mistress.”

“And who makes the decisions?”

“You do, Mistress.”

“I don’t ever want to hear you talk about cuddling again,” she whispered, her face inches above his and very, very dangerous. “Do you understand me?”

“Yes Mistress.”

He could hear her breathing heavily in anger and quailed inside at the thought of punishment.

“This can’t be your fault,” she mused. “Someone must have put the idea in your head. So instead of making you pay for upsetting me, I’ll allow you to make it up to me. Would you like that, Ianto?”

“Oh yes, Mistress, please let me apologize,” he begged. Ianto blinked rapidly at the bedspread, clinging to even that banal image when he knew that his vision could be turned off at any moment. “I’ll do anything you want!”

“I know you will,” his Mistress murmured, stroking his lowered chin until he was looking her in the eyes again. “Because you’re mine, aren’t you Ianto?”

He opened his mouth to respond, and faltered for an instant when blue eyes- caring blue eyes- appeared in his mind. “Y-yes Mistress, I’m yours.”

She frowned. “Then prove it.” She let herself fall back onto the bed, writhing blatantly and spreading her body open for his ministrations.

Ianto licked his lips and wondered why he was imagining someone else as he went to work.

[*]

Jack had to call upon all the confidence tricks he’d learned to keep up the image of a carefree vacationer as they sat down to breakfast the next morning in an opulent dining hall. After a sleepless night imagining all the things Lisa could be doing to Ianto, ways she could be hurting him, he could hardly sum up the energy to smile at the busty man who served them drinks.

When Lisa arrived- stylishly late- she swept into the room imperiously, drawing all eyes to her and the silver shimmer of today’s outfit, a tight corset of woven metal strips. Ianto followed a few steps behind her, somewhat more conservatively dressed than the evening before in a tight corset and shorts similar to Lisa’s in thin gold strips. He was moving slowly and when he turned to sit at Lisa’s left hand bruises were visible down the side of his face.

Jack had to put down his drink to avoid shattering the glass.

“I trust you had a restful evening Chancellor, Rose, Jack?” Lisa shook the Doctor’s hand and smiled at Rose and Jack. Rose managed to respond in kind, but Jack was staring intently at Ianto, who was only looking at his empty plate.

“Jack,” the Doctor prompted sternly.

Jack gave Lisa a winning smile. “I’m sorry, Lisa. I was lost in thought.”

“Yes, my Ianto has a tendency to make people forget their bearings.” Her smile gained an edge as she looked at her servant.

“I’m afraid I’ve mislead you, Lisa,” the Doctor said amiably.

The dark woman looked at him with interest, but she didn’t seem at all surprised. “Oh? So you’re not here for pleasure, Chancellor?”

“We’ve heard reports from this region that someone has been involved in cloning. Illegal cloning. As Controller of this region, you would be able to tell me if you’d arrested anyone for cloning, wouldn’t you?”

Lisa’s face didn’t give away a thing. “I can’t say I remember. But Ianto’s been my assistant for almost three years now. Do you remember anyone arrested for cloning in that time?” she asked Ianto sweetly.

“No Mistress,” Ianto said quietly.

The Doctor looked at Lisa closely. “That’s funny. ‘Cause our sources said you had something to do with it, Lisa. That these laws were being broken in your house.”

The Controller sat up stiffly. “I am offended by the implication, Chancellor. I would never take part in something so dishonorable.”

An old woman with faintly green-tinged white hair entered the dining hall bearing a heavy covered tray. It was set in the middle of the table and the cover removed, revealing an oddly-shaped roast.

“I am very generous to all my employees, Chancellor,” Lisa continued, picking up a carving knife from the tray and slicing off a large chunk. “For example: this is Ianto’s favorite breakfast meat.” She placed the slab on Ianto’s plate. “I love each and every one of my darlings and I spare no expense. Dig in, Ianto.”

Ianto picked up his knife and fork and cut the meat with hands that shook. His eyes remained glued on his plate. When he had cut off a bite of the meat and picked it up with the fork, his hand shook and the meat remained in the air before his mouth.

“Go on,” Lisa said softly, staring intently at the pale man. “Eat it!”

“Ianto?” Jack whispered in alarm.

For the first time, Ianto looked at Jack. Jack stood up from the table in alarm at Ianto’s crossing, unseeing eyes. “Doctor!” he cried.

The Doctor whipped out his Sonic Screwdriver and it buzzed at the roast. He gave Lisa a look of disgust. “It’s clone meat. Probably the last one you killed.”

Ianto dropped the fork and pushed back from the table, staring sightlessly at the plate. “Annie!” he choked.

“What is that!” Lisa demanded, pointing at the Sonic Screwdriver. “That’s from off-planet. No Chancellor would use an imported weapon! Guards!” she shrieked, her voice taking on an echoing metallic quality. A dozen robots emerged from panels in the walls and haltingly moved inwards to surround the diners.

Jack vaulted over the table and dragged Ianto from his chair. “We’ll keep you safe, I promise!” he whispered as Ianto clutched him desperately.

“How dare you, Ianto,” Lisa hissed. “How dare you choose another over me. I loved you!”

Ianto shook his head. “What you did- that can’t be love. If it was, people wouldn’t want it so much.”

Lisa’s face turned downright evil. “I made you, Ianto. I can break you just as easily.” She pointed at the two men and blue electricity shot out of her wrist ornament. Jack pulled Ianto down just in time and the bolt hit one of the approaching robots, turning it to stone.

“Come on!” Jack shouted, ushering Ianto through the gap in the line of robots. They dashed out of the room, holding onto each other tightly.

“After them!” Lisa screamed.

[*]

Lisa’s attention was diverted for less than a minute. The Doctor grabbed Rose’s hand and turned his Sonic Screwdriver on one of the robots, causing it to spark and fall to the ground. The couple ran from the dining hall in the direction of the cloning chamber.

“First time out as a married couple,” the Doctor commented as they dashed through the halls past mystified alien partiers.

Rose laughed and squeezed his hand. “Does this mean our honeymoon’s over?”

“I’d say it’s just begun.” The Doctor grinned and squeezed back.

They reached the cloning room and the Doctor went straight to the computers, deleting every record of Lisa’s experiments. Rose picked up an abandoned microphone stand she’d noticed the last time they were in the room and stood in front of the cloning machine. “Ready?” she asked.

The Doctor looked over his shoulder at her and nodded. “Ready.”

Rose lifted the stand and began smashing the machine, first taking out the glass panes and then targeting the delicate equipment inside. As soon as she hit it the first time, alarms began to flash all around the room.

Rose grabbed the Doctor’s hand as they ran toward the front hall, praying they’d get there in time.

[*]

“Stairs,” Jack warned.

“Up or down?”

“Down.” They began to stumble down the wide steps, but Ianto stopped halfway, clutching Jack’s arms desperately. “Jack, I can’t!” he protested. “I can’t do this, I’m not an adventurer like you. I’m just a design.”

“You can be,” Jack told him, looking over their shoulders as he coaxed Ianto down the stairs. “You’ll be amazing, you just have to let go of everything she told you. I believe in you, Ianto!”

They reached the bottom of the stairs and the main hall. Jack could see the front doors. “We’re almost there!”

“How touching.” Lisa’s voice rang through the hall as she emerged between Jack and Ianto and the door. “He believes in you, Ianto, did you hear that? I’m sure he believes you’ll make him a lot of money when he takes you to his own planet’s resorts!”

“Not everyone places a higher value on money than lives,” Jack said, enraged at the accusation.

“Of course,” Lisa agreed, smiling dangerously. “You probably want him all for yourself. Has he said he loves you, Ianto? You don’t believe him, do you? You know I’m the only one who could ever love you. Really, I’m doing you a favor.” She raised her arm, aiming at Jack. There was nowhere to hide.

“No, he hasn’t,” Ianto whispered.

Jack saw the blue energy gather around Lisa’s wrist, and then he was staring at the stone statue of Ianto, between him and Lisa. “No!” he shouted, voice cracking. “Ianto!”

Two robots grabbed him from behind, dragging him out before Lisa. Another robot handed her a pickaxe, which she hefted as she stepped up to Ianto. Jack struggled against the robots, but he was unable to break their hold.

“You have displeased me for the last time,” she hissed, raising the axe.

Sirens began blaring and red lights flashed. Lisa spun around. “My machine!” she murmured, and then screamed. “My machine!”

She turned to Jack, eyes blazing with hatred. “This is all your fault.” She stormed toward him. “You will die knowing that your friends will suffer for this, and that I will reset Ianto’s brain to make him my perfect servant, just as he was before your interference!”

“You’ll never break him again,” Jack said defiantly. “He’s learned that there’s a world out there beyond you. You can’t make someone forget that.”

With a murderous shriek, Lisa drew the pickaxe over her head. Jack closed his eyes-

-and opened them again.

Lisa’s frozen stone statue stood before him, pickaxe halfway descended and face twisted with madness. Behind her, Ianto was gasping for air.

Jack pulled away from the robots, who had stalled out where they stood. He caught sight of Rose and the Doctor across the hall, Sonic Screwdriver still raised. “Cutting it a little close, eh Doc?” he said lightly, feeling the near-death adrenaline high kicking in.

He looked at Ianto and his grin melted away. His vision had clearly returned, because he was staring at Lisa in devastation. “Mistress,” he whimpered. He stumbled toward her and Jack caught him in a hug, bearing some of Ianto’s weight as he sobbed.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Jack whispered, holding him tightly while the Doctor and Rose approached, wearing matching sympathetic looks.

“I loved her,” Ianto said, sounding bewildered and distraught.

“I know you did,” Jack said back. “I know.”

“We should probably go to the Tardis,” Rose suggested quietly. She looked at the Doctor. “Before someone comes to investigate the alarms.”

The Doctor nodded and the party made their way out of the mansion and across the lawn to the Tardis.

Inside, Jack sat Ianto down on the couch. The young man had stopped crying and was looking around the console room in shock. “But… it’s bigger on the inside,” he said in confusion.

“I said I’d show you amazing things, didn’t I?”

Ianto nodded. “Yes, you did.”

The Tardis took off into the Vortex smoothly, for once, and the Doctor and Rose approached the two men. “Ianto,” the Doctor said kindly. “I’m the Doctor.” He stuck out his hand.

Still looking rather shell-shocked, Ianto took it. “Doctor who?” he asked.

“Just the Doctor. And I want to take you on a trip. We can go anywhere in the universe you like, even through time.”

Ianto’s eyes widened. “I don’t know anywhere that’s not on Transsexual.”

Rose stepped forward. “Or, you could stay here, with us. We’d love to have you. Wouldn’t we, Doctor?” she prompted her husband.

“Of course we would,” the Doctor agreed.

“I could stay with you?” Ianto said to Jack.

“If that’s what you want,” Jack replied.

“You said you cared about me. Do you want me to stay?”

Jack took a deep breath, trying to hold on to his emotions. “I want what’ll make you happy. I’d love for you to stay, but if you want to leave…”

“I want to stay with you,” Ianto said certainly, and kissed him.

Jack kissed him back for a moment, then broke it off. “Ianto, you don’t have to do that.”

“But I want to,” Ianto insisted fervently. “I- I care about you, Jack.”

Jack broke into a smile and practically shook with happiness. “Then you can stay!” he whispered.

“You know,” the Doctor commented as the moment drew out and Ianto and Jack seemed content to sit in each other’s arms, “the Tardis is a bit angry that she didn’t get to finish her nap. She wants us to go somewhere that’s sure to have no trouble for at least three days.”

Rose grinned. “Another honeymoon planet?”

The Doctor grinned back. “Just what I was thinking. What do you say, Jack?”

“Think you could handle it?” Rose teased.

Jack rolled his eyes.

“What’s a honeymoon?” Ianto asked, and Jack’s face softened.

“I’ll explain when we get there.”

 

And they all lived happily ever after.


End file.
